I really don't know how to ask this question but here goes: When you are keeping samples of your child's work, how do you know what to keep and what not too? We have had so much going on this year that most of her stuff I can't find. We just recently moved into a new home and are starting all over again. Long story and won't go into it.

Cindy

My kids have notebooks for some subjects (history, science, language, math) and everything they do is filed in them. At the end of the year it will be easy to sort through and choose the best ones to put in a permanent file. For other subjects like Latin and art, I sort as I go. The notebook system works well for us - it's easy for me because the kids do their own filing, and the children love their "books".

That's a very good idea. I might try that with my daughter. It's just getting her motivated to do it herself, instead of "Mom" doing it for her.

Oh, no - I didn't mean to imply that my kids were motivated! I have to tell them each time they complete an assignment to put it away, or else it would sit on the table for weeks. This is what happens every time they finish with a subject:

"Mom, I'm finished."
"Good for you, now put your papers and books away."

If that exchange does not occur, papers do not get filed! It's like it's an incantation or something!

Notebooks here too. As for end of year stuff I have no idea ... it's our first year homeschooling.

I'm more of a packrat. I keep her work during the school year in binders or in hanging files in my cabinet beside my desk, depending on subject. We're trying more notebooking now, so this year might be a little different as she wants me to have her history notebook (which also includes her writing assignments, etc) bound. Normally at the end of Spring I go through the files and pull out samples for the portfolio. (I get too nervous about what to select so I pick a starting date and do every two months from that point till the end in each subject. That takes the decision off of me. Anything extraordinary also goes in. The rest gets filed into her notebooks and is placed, along with any workbooks, etc. into a large Rubbermaid bin. These get labeled with the child's name (since we have bins for two older girls too), dated with grade/year, and stacked in the basement. So far this system has worked for me ... or maybe it's just that I'm too scared to throw anything away! lol

FYI - I grew up with a mom that still has boxes of my school stuff packed along with every toy and book that I ever owned. It's in my blood.

The reason why I can't find most of my daughter's things is because we just came off the road from living in a Semi-Truck for the last year. I homeschooled while going down the road. My daughter learned quite a bit. When we emptied out the truck some stuff was thrown out and I have no clue if any of her things were thrown out.

I am pretty organized, but if anyone knows what we went through then they would know that it was hard. Now I am trying to get back on the right track with everything. I am looking for new ideas to try.

What State do you live in? Do you have to show your work? If not, I wouldn't worry about it. If you have to show a portfolio, then put together what you can and get an evaluator that is sympathetic to homeschoolers, or even better, one that is a homeschooler herself. I'm sure she will understand if your portfolio is patchy, given the circumstances.

I have two suggestions that might help with your problem. First, if your state is very restrictive about homeschooling, I would suggest that you go online to your state's education agency's web site to look for a list of essential elements that the state requires of its public schools. This could help you prioritize the types of items to put in the portfolio if you have to have the portfolio examined. I am not suggesting that you teach exactly what the state is asking of the public schools, but I do think that it can be helpful in getting an idea of what officials feel is important in education. For example, if you are aware that in the third grade, your state requires descriptive writing to be taught, you can make sure to include a sample of a descriptive writing in your portfolio. Also, in my previous life as a public school teacher, portfolios were required for each child. It is important that you decide what elements or skills you want to teach, and then, in the portfolio, look for the best examples. It is not important to have 20 samples of a skill when you can convey the same message that there is learning taking place in your homeschool by including a few very good samples. Also, make sure that your items are not all from one or two months, but are instead from the entire year. The main point is to show yourself, your children and officials that there is progress and learning taking place throughout your school year.

That leads me to my second suggestion. If you are blessed as we are to live in a homeschool-friendly state that doesn't require portfolios, just save items that are important to you and/ or your child and the items that will help you show where you have been. This helps us feel great to look back at past work and see how far we have actually come. This can also help you see where there may be areas that you need to expand, reteach or move on from. If this doesn't help, I believe I have seen books in our Christian bookstore that help in developing portfolios.

Because we are in the process of relocating from Indiana to Michigan, we have been doing a great deal of traveling. So each of my kids have a binder for each subject that stays at home & a trapper keeper that travels with us. They bring their notebooks to the table along with their text books. (or whatever else they use.) Then I also have a large binder for each of them that I keep as a portfolio. It has all the pertinent information for myself and will go to house various papers I would like to keep at the end of the year. The rest will probably be boxed up/thrown out/scrapbooked.

What I do with my son is I get a Notebook write down the date and the subjects that he does, then under each subject I write exactly what he does. If he has trouble in a subject I write what the trouble is in Red and that away I know what he needs to work more on, But this year we are leaning more towards unschooling

I was wondering what secular boxed curriculum you ladies recommend.

I am interested in opinions the good, bad and indifferent . My kids are 4 and 6

My neighbor uses Calver ... she's quite pleased.

Calvert

It's well rounded and uses a single lesson plan book for mom, plus a math syllabus. It even comes with supplies such as paper, crayons, paints etc.

Sycamore also offers a secular package curriculum (they offer both). The lessons plans can be purchased separately ... well worth the expense. They also have a nice collection of curriculum. I felt the paper catalog better portrayed their packages... it can be ordered for free.

Sycamore Academy Online store

Look in the store directory.

I use Sycamore Tree secular curriculum. I've been happy with it; its very well rounded. The most helpful thing to me was the lesson plans They have very well thought out lesson plans so you're not overwhelmed feeling about where to start. I also like the fact that they don't use all the same brand or publisher of workbooks, so you get to try different publishers all in one package. We started with their K package and are doing the 1st grade package now. I'll probably buy the 2nd grade package as well. If you add up the cost of all the books in the packages, you are actually getting the lesson plans for free.

I looked at the Sycamore Tree Secular for 2nd grade and they are using a lot of what I picked up individually less expensively.

Our first year we bought a boxed curriculum (Kolbe) and I was so disappointed with what came in the box. Since then I've been gathering up lists of what we like, don't like and just getting the books and stuff from Rainbow Resource. I've been getting a bigger bang for the buck.

The only draw back is that I have to do my own lesson plans.

What I mean is: I find it difficult to plan that we're going to do XYZ on whatever day, because if something happens to prevent us from schooling (like today) then I feel like I need to "double up" the next day or am stressed about moving everything up a day.

So, what do you do? Do you track everything "need to do" style or "what we did today" style? And, if you do the latter, do you still do some "set" teaching each day? For example, in September I want to start Spelling Power and FLL, but I want to do them everyday.....but, I don't want to be so rigid that I'm freaking out about making sure everything is done each day ... I want the kids to enjoy school, ya know? Right now, (well the last couple days before my schedule was ruined with house hunting) when my daughter says "can I do more math"....I'm like "no, only those three pages, we have to do reading, etc." and I can tell it bothers her.

My thoughts are to get those huge desk calendars (one per kid) and let them pencil in what they've done each day and only schedule things like FLL, SP and maybe reading out loud as "need to do things" ......what do you all think?

If your kids are old enough to keep track of it, then it sounds like a good idea to me.

I usually try to plan each thing out for the week/month/semester. I mark it off as done, when it is done. I may have it scheduled for June 28th, but didn't actually get it done until July 1st. I still mark it as being done on the 28th. If it is way off schedule or not done at all, I erase it. I schedule everything in pencil .
HTH

I have been exactly where you're describing. This is our sixth year and I've tried many ways. Scheduling what we will do each day for more than a week always gets messed up! What we've been doing lately is make a list of things that I'd like to get done for the week and they cross them off as they're done. Whatever is left over just goes on the next week.

If they get involved in something and ask to do more I always let them. I believe they always learn more if it's their choice. The one exception is that my son would read all day and never do anything else, so I do limit him on how much he can read while I'm available to help with other things. I know he will read for hours on his own time, though. My daughter has just begun consuming books. She was "late" learning to read and in becoming fluent. If she gets so involved in a book that she would read all day, I'd be hard pressed to stop her. I'm been just dying for her to love reading like her brother and me.

If we've gone for a few weeks with little math being done (this happens a lot since it's everyone's least favorite subject) I stress that it must be done first for a few weeks.

The things I want them to do everyday, like practice their instruments, just get written in for each day we plan to do school.

One thing we've come to do is to just work on the workbook, or whatever, until we're finished and then move to the next in the series. We don't start everything brand new at the beginning of our school year. They may be 10 lessons into a new math book and just finishing their English book. Sometimes when we finish a book (especially in the dreaded math) I'll get some review stuff to work on a problem area before starting a new book.

Do whatever it takes to get rid of the stress. That's no fun for any of you! I like your idea of the calendars. You could perhaps write in Spelling Power, FLL (what is that anyway?) and Read Aloud. They could check those off and write in what ever else they do. After a few weeks you'd see if they were consistently missing something and you could focus on that for awhile.

The calendar idea sounds like a good one. I think we've all been there and done that, but what works for each homeschooling family (student) is individual. Good luck hon.

Maybe keeping your list in order and not using dates until it's finished. Then you can mark it done and on the date it was done. Like: Lesson 1, 2, 3, etc. And then the date it was done. Say Sept 1 finished lesson 1 but you didn't get to lesson 2 until Sept 3 or 4. Keep your lessons in chronological order but not by date.

I have much to say about this. so it will be in bits and pieces.

If you are using FLL there are only 100 lessons, unless you want to be done very early or plan to move on to another language arts program, only do FLL 3x a week. I haven't used SP yet, but I would follow their suggestions.

Some of my scheduling is done for me since I use Sonlight, but I'm adding in other things and switching around some of SL, so their schedule is really just a guide line for me.


I think that once you get a plan of action then you can just write down what you do daily.

My tentative schedule looks like this~

History, MWF
Science TTH, experiments sat ( when hubby is home to watch the little ones)
Math everyday
Phonics everyday
FLL MWF
HWT TTH
Music(Noah is in the church choir, weds and sunday) We do have a music reading book, I will add this in eventually 1x a week
health is in our science
Phys ed is bike riding, nature walking, swimming, t-ball

Sometimes you have to follow the leads of your children if you child wants to do more math you should encourage her, just reminding her that you also need to do the reading or whatever. This is one of the big reasons why we homeschool all year. I'm sorry I don't remember if you do or don't right now. But my goal is for my children to love learning and I won't push them just because we "have " to do something that they might not like or excel in right this moment. If we are having a hard time in a subject I will let it rest for a day, week or even a month if need be and since I do that Noah is less anxious and resistant to learning things that may be hard for him.

I use the subject planner. I plan each subject on paper by itself like this example for one semester of health:
http://donnayoung.org/forms/help/go/aoh.htm

Each day your children should do what is next on the list. If you have to miss a day on one or two subjects, that is no big deal! No stress, just pick up where you left off on that particular subject. That this is explained on this page: http://donnayoung.org/forms/help/usingqup.htm

Managing this system is not too difficult. All of the papers are kept together in your notebook. When the children were older, I attached a copy to each of their books. Each morning, give your children their assignments or if they are young children, call them when you are ready to go over their lesson. When something has been done, that can be checked-off the list. When my kids were old enough I devised this checklist to use with the subject planners. The kids checked off the items as they did them.

If you need to keep a daily log, write what your children did each day in a spiral notebook or in a planner on the day the work is completed or the day after.

It also helps to plan a subject for less time than your school year. If it was possible, I spread each subject out for 2-4 weeks less than our school year.

I just planned out a month of lessons in a teachers planner for each individual child. I didn't date it. I figure, I have it all written out. The days of the week really don't matter. If we get all 5 days in in the week, wonderful. If not, then they just do the next full day of work. I'm starting school now, so I can take off whenever we feel like it throughout the year. The kids did really well with their own individual assignment books last year, and that is one thing I am doing the same way this one.
Kristi

I do things a lot like Kristi, I plan out a bunch of activities then when the opportunity is there we do things and I cross them off the list. I also have a year of goals written out and periodically I go through that and check off things that we have done or ones she's met.

I'm pretty laid back about it, but I only have one daughter and she's just now reaching Kindergarten age. My approach wouldn't necessarily work for older kids or larger families.

Vickie, try to remember all the things the kids are learning during the move. Also can they take a tape measure to the houses you are looking at and calculate square footage or figure out what stuff would fit where? Count windows in two rooms and add them together? Stuff like that would keep them occupied and they'd learn something too.
When we looked at 6 houses in one day we gave Maddie an "I Spy" list to check off things. She searched for a bird bath, a red couch, a toy, etc. and it kept her pretty occupied.

I like the calendar idea if the kids are able to handle this! This is only our 2nd year and our first year I was freaking out and getting stressed because things weren't done so I just quit planning and kind of winged everything to see how it went. I need some plan!! I decided this year to plan for a quarter at a time (starting in august) what I want them to get accomplished then take a week off in between. The 2nd quarter we end up with a lot more time off because of the holidays, but that's okay. Anyway I figure the week off will give me time to assess and plan more for the next quarter if necessary I know I won't be as stressed knowing that we have plenty of time to accomplish our goals and yet still have flexibility. I am also toying with the idea of alternating science and history every quarter. We seemed to get immersed in an idea or topic with those two subjects and spend lots of time with them!! I agree with whoever said to get rid of the stress no matter what it doesn't do any one any good!! Do what works best for you guys!!

I like to plan things with a pencil and large teachers planner spiral notebook. But since I found the hs tracker (Thank you ! ), I use that to list completed work. I like it because I can print a "report card " on all that they have completed. But I don't like to PLAN on the computer. So , sounds like the big calendar thing would work good, try it!!

I keep two small binders with weekly planner pages in them. In one planner I write out the week or month with lessons I want to get done. In the second binder I keep weekly planner pages in it and then as each day goes by i write in what we did that day. this way I can see what i want to get done and also see what we have gotten done.
This works very well for us.

I use the homeschool tracker to record what we've worked on, rather than planning. I do have goals written out that we work on daily, but in our case planning and scheduling has definitely not worked.
My son is severely autistic, so I can't honestly look ahead and say, "We'll accomplish this, this, and this", because I just don't know what he'll accomplish and how quickly.
We take daily notes and data on what he's worked on that day in a notebook. And I love the Homeschool Tracker's diary feature. That's where I record a lot of my notes, impressions, etc.

Since I have to keep records of grades, this is what I do

I have a PS grade book.

Each child has their own page.

Under Math, above the little square where the grade goes I write L.1, L.2, L.3 etc, tests and quizzes are in red. So that way when they have a grade under that lesson, they move on to the next one. NO DATES!!!! Dates cause mega stress!!!

I have always tackled things by doing a little bit at a time. To sit down and plan an entire school year would drive me insane. I get the general supplies and curriculum I want to use along with a homeschool planning book. I pencil in our lessons one week at a time. This way I can make needed adjustments during any given week for a field trip, illness, etc. I have to echo what Deborah said about not being completed with a curriculum by any certain date. I work through one book or project, and when we are done we move on to another.

I generally plan 1 week of school at a time. I plan for 4 days per week and then we can catch up or watch a video on the 5th.I know how far we need to be by the end of 9, 18, 27 and 36 weeks because I try to run on the same schedule as my high schooler so that my 7th grader won't be so distracted. This plan has worked fairly well. We did finish all our textbooks . And had a pretty good time to boot.

I actually do plan the whole year in advance in the summer. I usually get so excited to start again that I am quite ambitious with what I plan and we NEVER get it all done.....but we have fun trying.

On a planner sheet that has all the months listed down and 4 (quarters) boxes across the top I list all the things I'd LIKE to do for the year, one page for each subject. That is my skeleton for the year. I put this in the beginning of my planner book.

Then I print off a calendar page for each month and try to plan what I would like to accomplish that month using the previous sheet for a guide. I put these in my planner and 5 weekly sheets in between. each one. That is the end of the planning phase. I use those only for a rough guide.

On the weekly sheets I just write down what we actually did. I never get everything done that I plan. Some learning takes longer and often I will change my mind and not do a unit or change books midstream if it's not working. I am also homeschooling a sp needs child and sometimes school just does not happen for one reason or another.

I got almost all my planning sheets from Donna's site.

I plan the whole year too. For my second grader I remove all the pages from the phonics and spelling workbooks and staple them together by day. He is always very clear about what he has to do each day. So I have lots packets sitting in the cupboard right now for next year. For all his other subjects like science, math and history, we wing it mostly, but I have a goal of what we are to accomplish by year's end. I doubt it will take a whole year to do science and history, but it's nice not to have to stress about those subjects.

The reading stuff I don't take apart, but he has been doing the same program for a while and knows that once he starts a story he has to finish it and all the corresponding workbooks pages.

For my 9th grader everything is planned down to the smallest detail because she has so much to get through and she isn't well organized at all. I only do a 6 week schedule for science though, just in case it starts to give her trouble, she can modify.

I push them harder in the fall than in the spring because it's hard to fight the year end fever around here. We should end up with only a few subjects still going on by next March. Math and science will definitely take the 9th grader all year to complete, and the same goes for reading for my second grader, but they will have less stress and more time to get them done without having every single subject still going on.

I want to record every little detail, but I can't even keep a personal journal let alone make entries in the homeschool tracker! I will probably try to get a lesson plan book from Office Depot and start keeping better records now that we are in high school. (Well ... I HOPE I will.)

Just a reminder, but Donna has some very nice planner pages to print off...for free! Nearly every format you could think of. I use tracker, but I also have a book of these forms to use for planning with (have been for years).

Hello ladies,

I only signed up to this forum a couple of days ago, but I have really enjoyed the "atmosphere" of this forum already.

I have a couple of questions I'm hoping y'all (yes, I'm a Texican ) can help me with.

First, I have just about finished my goals for each child for the school year and am wondering, how do I keep this from just becoming a bunch of papers stuck in the back of a notebook for the next year. In other words, how do I convert goals to lesson plans. Gee, I hope this makes sense.

Next, I could really use some help with scheduling. It seems like I spent all of last year trying to find what would work and consistency received a major blow because of it. When school was going well, the house fell apart and fast food became a way of life. And when the house (laundry, home-cooked meals, etc.) was presentable school suffered. Any help you could give would be greatly appreciated. If it helps to know, I have three children 8th grade, 6th grade and 1st grade. I double up on a lot of things with the 8th and 6th grader.

Your help is appreciated.

Welcome, bwpilgrim!

As far as goals go, before the school year, I sit down & write out the goals I'd like to see my son's reach by the end of the year. Then, I look for curricula that I feel will best help my son reach those goals. My lesson plans come from that curricula. Does that make sense? I keep a copy of the goals with my lesson plans in my little homemade planner & peek at it periodically (about after every quarter or so) to see how we're doing. It keeps us all pretty much on track.

I'm sort of a...er, um ... tyrant when it comes to our daily schedule. It's not like I sit over everyone all day & , but consistency is the key to keeping things running smoothly at our house. During the week, we get up at the same time, eat at almost the same time, have school during the same hours, go to bed at the same time, etc. Even on the weekends, with the exception of school, we pretty much stick to the same schedule. Our daily, monthly, & yearly chores are all planned out & included on the big honking calendar stuck to the whiteboard in the kitchen so nothing (hopefully) gets left undone or sneaks up on us. Sounds rather boring & does make me sound pretty tyrannical, but we have plenty of fun & since my husband is one of those folks who loves spur-of-the-moment surprises, there's just enough spontaneity to make things interesting.

More information than you probably wanted, eh?

Good luck!

Hi bwpilgrim, Donna has step by step instructions on Homeschool Planning for Beginners. I hope they are helpful to you, they sure are to me. Ask any questions and someone will try and answer .

Ang explained that very well. The goals helps you decide what books (or parts of books) to use. Having the goals written down helps you if you forget exactly what it was that you wanted to do. I always keep mine in the front of my notebook right behind the calendar and before the course of study.

That's the question of the year. Managing a house and school at the same time is a juggling act. Make chore lists for your kids and yourself and schedule it into the daily schedule. Ang probably already explained that. That is the big secret though, housework has to be included in the schedule. It's easier typed than done. For me, getting the chores, or at least certain light-weight chores that make the house look neat, finished first thing in the morning gets that off my back.
Make time for yourself too


Michelle, thanks for linking the Homeschool Planning for Beginners web page.

I guess the only thing I can think of to add is, don't be too hard on yourself if you don't get everything done you want to in a particular day or week or even month. It will all get done eventually (or wasn't meant to be done). And the fun is in the journey.

Remember we are all learning all the time, kids and grown ups too, don't "try" too hard, or you'll miss out on it all!

I have to agree with Janet! there are times my house is a mess, the laundry is piled high and the kitchen sink is running over!! But I have found that if the boys are having a really great time learning I tend not to care to much!! If necessary to catch up on the house work I we take a day or two off school and get caught up!! I guess the way I look at it is the housework will always be there but they will only be children once!! As far as planning goes, Donna's web site is great for that!! Helped me a lot!!

Thank you all so much for the tips. I probably should have mentioned I tend to get real hung up on details and sometimes miss the "big" picture. That may not make a lot of sense unless you have that problem, too. Anyway thanks again. I wish I could give you all a big hug.

Ok here I am again with my crazy questions. I have only been homeschooling for 3 years. The first year was hit and miss. I bought curriculum that planned everything for me. Didn't like it because it seemed way to structured. If we missed a day due to illness, we had to make it up as soon as possible and stay on track to complete by the end of our school year. The 2nd year I planned everything but waited until a few weeks before we started. It seemed like all that I did was plan. This year we are just going day to day and I am trying to list what we have done at the end of each day. I admit that some days I get bogged down and wait until the next day to list and do two days at once.

I am thinking I would like to have a plan or should I say an outline of a plan subject to change. :-) We start are around July each year to give extra time before we SAT test with our group in April. I have been looking for curriculum and starting to plan (in pencil) for next year. Am I obsessed? Does anyone else try to plan this far in advance? My fear is not having the time to spend with my husband and children during the year because I am spending a lot of my free time (what is that?) planning. Any suggestions would be grateful.

Personally, I start my planning in January of each year. Our year begins in September and ends in June, and for me this works. I find that the sooner I start planning the easier it is. I usually begin with a general outline for each of my children for the year and then start with one subject and expand and prepare the lessons from there. I find that it takes me about 2 months, this to has helped me not get so crazy and feel like I am ten steps behind. I don't think you are crazy, rather smart for getting a well planned start on things.

I'm already starting to plan for next year. I usually wait until summer but not this year. It's obvious we're not going to get everything done this year that I had planned (we never do) as far as unit studies go, so I will roll them over to next year. Also I have evaluated what we have been using and we will either finish it up, like the Explode the Code series, and move on, to the Wordly Wise series, or ditch it, like this years math program and use something else.

I try to make some sort of plan for each book soon after I buy the book. It is usually just a reading schedule like the example on this page: http://donnayoung.org/forms/help/go/tsoi.htm

Some subjects need more than just a reading schedule though. Through the year, if I can manage to look ahead in the books, then projects or other activities are planned.

So, I plan as soon as I get a book, then as the year unfolds, I might add some projects or other activities to do.

I am a compulsive planner and poor follow-through-er.

For the school year, I do an overall year plan in June and then do mini-plans throughout the year as we go. I have learned to not worry if we fall behind. I just toss that plan and make a new one.

I start planning early. I get an idea of what I want to cover, then start looking for books/materials to do that. Then I start planning how it can be planned out to be done.

Currently, I have taken over the dining room table...it has my file box, school planner book, papers galore....and am working on plans/records. I just wish I could have a table this size in my little office ... I have to go to the front of the house, through the school room, to get to it. Naturally ... I get stopped along the way!

Me too, me too! I get so excited about all the things I think my daughter would enjoy learning about, and needs to learn, that I go crazy with the plans. Then reality hits and we can never do it all!

I don't think I stop planning. Usually in January I will start to think of things I would like to cover for the next school year. Sometimes I plan on a monthly basis. This month and part ,if not all, of next month we will be doing FL History. I started planning for this two months ago, but had the book since July. Last summer I had "school" on the brain the entire time and it drove me batty . This summer will be different .

My goal for next year is to plan everything in advance. I'll be using Donna's goal sheets and planners . I really like the way she plans out her books. Come May during our HS Convention, I will be by myself and the planning will begin . I am so excited about it.

I do but then I forget to use it sometimes.

I used to have that problem but since I'm getting a little more organized. I know where most everything is.

I bought two bookcases in the fall, 4'x7' so most of our books(not all of them mind you) are on them and I have a few shelves with education stuff on them until I get a deep cabinet to put that stuff in.
A client of mine had a pantry that was deep, had shelves and 2 drawers in it. So that is what I'm looking for now, but I think we need at least 2 maybe 3 of them.

I just realized that this post starts a new thought process

Every reply was so very helpful. Thank you all very much! Don't know how I ever managed before Donna's web site with so much info!!!!! Thank you Donna.

I have another question and I am not sure if I should have made a new topic or not but here it goes.

My plans for my daughter is a little of everything We have tried everything at some point and she likes it for a little while but then gets bored. My ideas are some unit studies with some workbooks, computer games etc. I think most of you get the idea. NOW the question.....How do I plan for unit studies AND say traditional math curriculum? Is there a way to use the same type of planner or should I use both types of planners. The problem I am thinking about is this. We are going to use beyond FIAR BUT there is some extra science or history I would like to touch on that isn't in the book as well as history and writing. How would any of you do this? Looking for suggestions!

Thanks everyone!

I am homeschooling my 6 1/2 yr old son and my 2 1/2 yr old son and I use Well Trained Mind which is a classical method. They give you a plan and if you don't follow it to the letter that is ok. Most of the planning is done for you really.

I still use some unit studies, but I make them up myself. I still use the materials I have bought, but don't use them all in traditional curriculum format. I instead refer to them as resources.

So when I plan, I break up the various subjects, and put them in the planner, and use the resources. But when actually doing the studies, they are all grouped together. In other words...the 4 hour stretch of studying, say, Rome, encompasses art, literature, history/geography, language arts, Bible, science (if I find some science stuff), and math. With the math, we learned units of measure during that time period, compared to ours today, but they also did their regular math. We actually did the math lesson for the day first thing ... worked great cause they all wanted to get into the 'project'.

Then...as I said before ... recorded the components in the planner (once it was actually done)

Thanks to everyone for their ideas on this topic of planning.

We'll be starting The Weaver Unit studies here very soon. I know that I need to have a plan for this as this is ALL new to me. We've only done workbooks to this point.